Blogger's Quilt Festival: One Tough Granny

I think I finished just in time to link up to Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival! Phew! ;)

 I totally love this blog event! It makes me feel like I'm strolling around a small town fair looking at everyone's beauties! Except that I don't have to get dressed, I don't have to worry about kids running around and getting lost, and I don't have to drive for hours and hours and yet I can still see quilts from all over the world! :) Now this is my kind of fair! ;) You can see my entry to last years quilt festival here.

My Giant Granny!

Whenever I think of Grandma's I think of sweet, cute old ladies who back Christmas cookies, give out candy to kids in the neighborhood, crochet and embroider, and give the best cuddly-squishy hugs ever. You've probably seen all the Granny Square quilts around blog land lately. I love them! And they kind of give me that same feeling of being sweet and cuddly, of course have the look of crotchet and many do have some hand quilting,  and of course I always just want to wrap myself up in them.

If you've been hanging around my blog lately, you've probably seen my Giant Granny Square that I've been working on. If not, well let me tell you, this is not your sweet old huggable granny! This thing is One Tough Granny!

the back

Ok, it has a lot of those yummy qualities too, but overall this lady is big, ok giant! and don't make me explain the tough part any more than me telling you that I have broken 4 embroidery needles trying to quilt this thing. (On my behalf I will say that I've been doing some sort of cross stitch, embroidery, handy work since I was young, so while this is my first hand quilted quilted, I'm not new to the idea.) I think this quilt is in its own way just making sure I know who's boss! lol. This quilt means serious business!

And hopefully that is serious business in being AWESOME! lol. ;)

I have had so much fun putting this quilt together! I knew I wouldn't have time to make 20+ granny squares, so I decided to go big or go home. I totally didn't figure my measurements right, so the square ended up smaller than I'd like, but with the 5" sashing, I really like it! The perfect size for a little baby to snuggle with or play on! :)

You can see all the hand quilting in the center best in this photo

I really debated on what to do with the back. This is the first quilt that I've pieced a back like this. I like it, but if I were to do it again I'd do it differently. Any who, I really like how the quilting shows up on the back! :)

As I said, this is the first quilt that I've completely hand quilted. You can find some tutorials I used to prep myself from this post. It's been so much fun! I absolutely love the process of it. The process is a nice change of pace in comparison to all the other sewing I've been doing for the last few months. :) I think I will definitely do more of this... though I don't know if I could do anything much larger than this.

If you're looking into doing some hand quilting, I TOTALLY recommend these Q-Snap Lap Frames! I love them! :) I have the 17" by 17", but would love to get a smaller one too for smaller projects of course.

So here we have it! My One Tough Granny Quilt. I don't know what I'll do with her. Unless I decide on something else, she is currently listed in my etsy shop! (That's what she gets for giving me such a hard time. lol.) ;)

If you're knew to these parts, thanks for stopping by! I hope you'll sit and stay awhile!

Too bad I can't offer you some of my Grandma's Christmas cookies through your computer! ;)

Hope you have a great week!!

And make sure to stop by Amy's Creative Side 

and visit all the other amazing quilts 

that are linked up in the Blogger's Quilt Festival! :)

I am also linking up at Quiltstory
and at Katie's new linky party for hand stitched items at There and Back!
Be sure to check it out if you haven't already!! :)

Updated to add: This is also a finish for the Finish-A-Long 2012!
Wahoo! :)  You can find this in my original link up post here.